May 2017- So far!

Ugh, what am I? The worst blogger in the world? Probably 😂

I admit, my posts have been more sporadic than even I intended. I'm just so in the zone working on my fiction piece. I keep thinking I've got it finished, and as I go to do my final read, I usually decide I want to add more and write furiously until I think I've finished again. At this point, the cycle repeats itself. It's quite the process, trying to write a book. I've been doing research online to see how many words adult novels are supposed to be and I've found quite the wide range of answers. I've read 55,000 words would be considered adult fiction while other sites state that's way too short. Some say 110,000 words is the maximum amount of words a novel should be, but then I discovered some of my most favorite novels are way longer than that so-called ceiling. 'Gone Girl'? 145,700 words. 'Big Little Lies'? 142,600 words. 'The Martian' hits 124,000 and 'The Da Vinci Code' comes in at 138,000. I think my new goal is 90,000. I vacillate daily from thinking I'm utterly crazy and destined to fail, to believing I can do this while pumping one fist in the air. So, to quote what has become my official party line, I apologize for the lack of recipes and posts. I've barely been cooking while in the zone, let alone working on any photography.

Just Checking In

Hello, hello! I'm sorry to have been away for a week and a half, but I swear, life be cray-cray around here. As most of you know, I've been working on my fiction writing. With a single-minded determinedness on that, I've been enduring all my other chores, chomping at the bit to write more. The story is coming along well. I'm at the point where I've decided to muck it all up. It was a short, sweet story and but now, plot changes are a-coming. Today should be a much slower day than the last couple, so I'll have plenty of time to work today.

Jalapeño Popper Pizza

It's Friday and we're going to talk about pizza. As such, I hereby open with this quote,

"You can't have Thanksgiving without turkey! That's like Fourth of July with no apple pie, or Friday with no two pizzas!"

I bet you can guess what show that quote is from... 

If you guessed 'Friends', you guessed right 😜 What can I say? I was picking up the house this morning, doing my normal chores, making the bed, and thinking about what I was going to write today. I started thinking about pizza... and that it's Friday... and the quote just popped into my head. Quotes from 'Friends' strike my mind every day in almost any situation, and while we won't be having 2 pizzas this Friday, the quote still made me smile. 

It's Almost Spring!

Actually, I guess it is spring. 

Hello!

I know it's been awhile, but I'm feeling ready to get back in the swing of things. There's something about spring that's just so inspiring for me, I'm starting to burst from wanting to share recipes and photos again. Winter is my least favorite season, it always feels bleak to me. I know there's many wonderful things about winter, and I appreciate them... for awhile. But then I'm ready for renewal. I love when the early daffodils pop, when there's buds on all the trees, when I start seeing juvenile cardinals and gold finches at the feeders again. It's magical. I have a few items in my garden that just pop up all on their own, like little gifts from nature. Such as my chives, above. They just burst from the ground one day, green and beautiful, full of hope.

Top 16 Recipes of 2016

Ah, long time, no see everyone!

Yes, it's the 2nd to last day of our Oregon trip and I've finally found a few moments to write. It has been Busy with a capitol B! We've been going non-stop, but man, it has been fun. I'll save pictures for when I do my Oregon or December wrap-up but we've basically been on what I like to call a "Food and Drink Tour" of Oregon. Seriously! We've travelled to Southern Oregon to dine at a couple of places in Ashland. We've stopped at a restaurant in Eugene. We've traveled to Portland to visit family and wine-taste with friends. There was a boozy breakfast in Albany. We saw "Holiday Office Party" in Corvallis. Drove the backroads through Independence. Had a wine-and-hor-dourves night with some of my biggest blog fans (Hello Glaeser family!) I can safely say I've seen the entire I-5 corridor of Oregon on this visit 😁

Turkey Bacon Avocado Paninis

It has been one of those kind of weeks.

Last Monday, a familiar but most unwelcome acquaintance set up shop in my house- the common cold. And ugh, it has been anything but fun. I've been running the gambit from sore throat to fever to head fog to a lost voice. Truly, by the end of the day Saturday, the hubby and I were communicating by text. I'm normally a very quiet person, but found the sensation of not being able to talk very unpleasant. Not cool when you are trying to watch Oregon football! 😡 Luckily, I'm on the mend. My voice is back and with only a nasty cough left, I'm pretty much over the hump.

Good thing too, because I'm doing the Thanksgiving shopping today 🙀

Wrapping Up September: 2016

Is it really October? This cannot be!! I cannot believe how fast this year is flying by. September was yet another whirlwind month. In September...

It's Not Always Pretty

What is our obsession with everything being perfect? Why do we feel we must hide those vulnerable parts of ourselves that aren't glossy, flawless, and magazine-worthy? 

The garden has been amazing therapy for me for a couple of years. The lessons I've learned in nature have been every part as valuable as what I've learned out and about in our consumer-driven society. I have control issues, I know this. I hate feeling out-of-control. I call it "feeling twirly". There are many things I can assert my dominance over- I control the cleanliness of my house, wiping and polishing any evidence of dirt away. I blow-dry, straighten, curl, and battle daily to get my hair into submission. Having a bad skin day? Concealer, foundation, and a layer of powder will solve that. 

Garden Veggie Pasta Soup

Happy Saturday everyone!

I was going to post yesterday, but you know what? I wasn't feeling it. While still trying to be my most authentic self, I just didn't feel like putting fingers to keyboard. It might still be the writer's block a little bit. It might be because the hubby's on a business trip and I've become obsessed with findings on Netflix. It's true, I discovered "Stranger Things" and nothing was done for 8 hours while I binged. If you like sci-fi, you'll like that one. Then I stumbled on "Shameless". Oh man, I'm deep into that one too. There's nothing like watching a show about a huge family with lots of problems when you have an empty house 😜

So, to set aside my TV bingeing for a moment or two, let's talk about the opposite of TV bingeing- gardening!

Since I've Been Gone: August (So Far)

Ok friends, let's wrap up this time period of me being gone forever and a day. I've finished up talking about July, so let's talk about August so far. August has been pretty typical around here, lots of humidity (oh lord, the humidity) and heat. Also, lots of rain. I'm happy with rain in the summer though, we get such crazy downpours that I don't have to water the garden for 2 days. Talk about shaving some time off the chore wheel. But honestly, when you are talking about August in the garden (at least for me) there's not a lot to do. This downtime feels so crazy after the frenzy of landscaping the hubby and I did during the early summer. I can't complain though, it's a lovely contrast. I much need the rest after having such a full house. And August of the family's stay here was pretty busy-

Pesto Zoodles with Grilled Chicken & Burst Tomatoes

Today, folks, might actually be a sunny day!

Indeed, I've been (impatiently) waiting for a sunny day for almost a week now. The hubby worked his tail off last weekend to finish the patio and the garden area out back for our rained-out 4th of July barbecue. The area frankly looks amazing, and I've had no chance to take pictures of it all week thanks to clouds, rain, and general gloominess. But not today! It's finally sunny, and I plan on taking full advantage of that. And I can't wait to share the results. The hubby is truly a miracle worker.

Garlicky Caprese Flatbread

There are no words.

I can not express how much I love to make this flatbread. Literally, there are no words. 

Well, I probably shouldn't say that, because let's face it- it's me we're talking about here. Girl who has something to write about almost anything. Girl who may not talk that much, but girl who writes prolifically. And yeah, I guess I do have words that describe how much I love this flatbread.

Wrapping up June: 2016

Hola amigos!

Yeah, I'm a couple days late with my monthly wrap-up. This summer, infinitely more than the past 3 summers, has been full of work. It seems like the longer we live in the house, the more work there is to do. I guess this makes sense. When we first moved in 3 years ago, we didn't even have grass. Now, we have landscaping times 100! The hubby and I were talking about how we had binged "Lost" back in the day, in 2009. I think one day we watched 15 episodes of the show. We got to talking about how in the world did we find that much time to watch the show, and we both came up with the fact that we lived in a rental whose yard consisted of an approximately 5 x 5 patch of grass. Not only were we not actively improving the property like people do with homes they own, but we had no yard. Of course we had oodles of time!

Recipe Redux: Tortellini Pepperoncini Salad

It's been a stormy morning y'all.

The hubby woke me up at 6 this morning to let me know a monster storm was on the way. I roused myself from slumber, shuffled my way to the den window that faces the northwest, and took a peep. Oh yeah, I could see the storm coming. I could see the lighting from miles away! We are prone to losing power out here in the country with these big wind storms, so I booked it to the coffee machine. I brewed 2 cups before the storm hit. I figured if I lost power at least I would have a 2nd cup of coffee, even if it turned out to be lukewarm. Lukewarm caffeine is better than none I figured :-)

Arancini with Homemade Marinara

I have opened my blog several times since Sunday, with the intention to write a recipe. Each time, I sat there, staring at the screen, searching for the words that will not come. Everything I started to write didn't sound appropriate. It felt... meaningless. 

On Monday, I was reading the latest post on one of the blogs I follow, Pinch of Yum. Lindsay practically took the words from my mouth on how she was feeling. Right now, after the worst mass shooting in US history, I feel empty. Why does this keep happening? Everyone and their mother has an opinion. Most of the opinions I don't want to hear. If you can't muster the empathy to feel for the victims, people who were in that building, relatives who've lost someone that meant everything to them... I don't even know what to say to you. Here in my small corner of Kentucky, people are pretty judgmental about the fact that this shooting happened at a gay club. I overheard a lady at the grocery store in front of me in line tell the cashier that at least it was "a bunch of gay people" that died. 

Lemon Garlic Shrimp Zoodles

After the sheer insanity of last weekend, this weekend promises to be a bit calmer. The hubby is scheduled to work today and tomorrow (boo!), and the weather is rainy. It's as if I woke up this morning and the universe told me to take it easy. Stay inside, read a book. Bake yummy carbohydrate-laden pasta into something comforting, take pictures of it. Put on Gilmore Girls and grab a mugful of tea. 

Summing up May: 2016

Another month, in the books.

Ah, I know. I'm a bad blogger. I was supposed to get this posted yesterday, but I had urgent garden affairs to attend to. Some of my tomato starts had become root-bound and were starting to die. They had to be transplanted immediately. All is well though. The best of the starts are moved, I've gotten a wee-bit sunburned, and I'll just post my monthly wrap-up today. 

May's weather left something to be desired. It was an extremely rainy month. We've had a huge pile of dirt in our yard for most of the month, waiting for dry weather, just itching to be moved into future flower beds. We're also tapping our feet for the yard to dry out so we can get in and build our fence. Thankfully the end of May was not too wet, and we were able to get the flower beds out front done. Hopefully by the time I write my June wrap-up, the side and back flower beds will be done and the fence will be installed. In the meantime, let's look at the front flower bed-

25 Side Dishes

Hey hey! We've got a holiday weekend coming up y'all!

The Memorial Day Holiday weekend is upon us. I don't know about you, but ever since we moved to Kentucky, Memorial Day has been spent with the hubby's family. The hubby's cousin and his wife drive in from out of town, and we all gather together for a family barbecue. This time, the hubby's cousin and his wife are bringing their new baby girl for everyone to meet! We are excited. The weekend is promising to be very sunny, right now they are forecasting a high of 90º. Whew! Good thing the hubby's-cousin's-wife's-mother (whose house we party at) has a pool. The pool is the best part of the get-together, at least as far as all the nieces and nephews are concerned :-)

Slow Cooker Salsa Verde Chicken Tacos

Fire up those slow cookers y'all!

There's so many things to love about this recipe. For one, you make it in the slow cooker. One of my absolute favorite cooking methods. Especially for things like taco meat. Two chicken breasts in the slow cooker kept me and the hubby fed for 4 days. If I'd been thinking clearly, I would have invented another recipe with the taco meat. As life would have it though, I devoured tacos for 4 straight days. 

It. Was. Glorious!

There's nothing better than savory shredded chicken, piled high with creamy avocado and cheddar cheese, all topped with a cool, crisp salsa verde and tucked neatly in a fresh corn tortilla. This is taco heaven! :-)

Recipe Redux: Tomato Cucumber & Mozzarella Salad

Time for this month's Recipe Redux! Truth be told, I've been dying to "redux" this recipe for awhile. It's one of my most popular "old" recipes and one that I make a ton of during the summer. This truly is a summer salad, as there are only 5 ingredients consisting of tomatoes, cucumbers, mozzarella chunks, lime juice, and olive oil. Well, I guess there's also salt and pepper but do people really count those as ingredients? I'm not sure... Anyways, when you are making a simple recipe, the ingredients you use really need to shine. And shine they do in this awesome, yet uncomplicated side dish.